Bottom Line: Within the built environment of Indian real estate today one question that is on everyone’s lip is: will the upcoming Ganesh Chaturthi remove all obstacles from the property market?
The wish and prayer for Ganesh Chaturthi to be the beginning of a turnaround of Indian real estate market is not without any valid reasons, by the standpoint of both sentiments as well as the fundamentals of the economy.
After all, investments and major purchase in this part of the world have always been sentiment driven and the emotional connect gets all the more profound when it comes to buying a house. The acquisition of property is the single largest investment one makes in life and hence people pre-pone or post-pone the decision to match it with an auspicious day or festival.
But with the maturity of the property market and new age buyers’ getting more realistic, added with the fact that slowdown had dampened the spirit, an impression had gained ground that Ganesh Chaturthi does not hold as much significance as it used to be. The festive spirit this year nevertheless indicates to dispel the myth.
The critics pointed out that urban home-buyers in a cities like Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore are not influenced by auspicious occasions and instead prefer to be grounded to the realities. Such impressions, however, are just impressions and festive spirit across the Indian market still commands buyers’ psyche and many prefer to wait for their valuable buying decisions to match with the festive spirit.
The buyers in general maintain that auspicious festivals are the right time to buy property. The trend is as much noticed in the traditional Marathi and Gujarati communities living in Mumbai as in other communities living in the city. On the Ganesh Chaturthi this year there is more of a reason why the buyers’ mood is upbeat and the developers are bullish that the festive spirit of Ganesh Chaturthi will uplift the market not just in terms of sentiments but also in quantitative terms reflected through the property transactions.
After all, the eco system of property market in Indian real estate is much better than the last few years. The economy is showing signs of improvement and this is leading to not only high business confidence index but also higher buyers’ sentiments. Then, from the standpoint of inventory also, the major cities at this point of time are sitting over quality inventory and this is making the wishes of the home seekers for a ready-to-move flat come true.
Relevance of Ganesh Chaturthi
- · Ganesh Chaturthi a demand driver festival
- · Market ready with ready-to-move inventory
- · Developers’ confidence index high
- · Buyers’ sentiment increasingly going up
- · Beginning of market turnaround possible with Ganesh Chaturthi
Analysts in the property market don’t think that today’s buyers are not going by the festive spirit to buy the house. Most of them believe that the volatile property market may have turned the customers a bit over cautious, come festivals and suddenly the market is stirring with new realty projects and even a higher number of buyer ratio. After all, realty buying is always favoured by the concept muhurats which Indians look forward to.
The home-buyers also feel that the relevance of the festive spirit of Ganesh Chaturthi can not be under-estimated even though they are nowadays making a detailed study about the market and the projects before taking a final decision. But at the same time, buyers, both young and old, are definitely influenced by a traditional festival like Ganesh Chaturthi.
“It may not be like I will plan to buy particularly on an auspicious day but my decision can always be put on hold till the muhurat dates, sometimes to get some discount and superstitions adds some value to it. Even in this technology driven time the luck factor and emotional connect with festivals is so strong that it promises to revive the realty market,” says Nirmala Sharma, a home-buyer.
Devang Trivedi, Managing Director, Progressive Group is very optimistic that the festive season will work well this time around. He feels that the developers will be able to see a good turn up of home-buyers enquiring about properties and the mood is definitely better than previous years, the simplest reason being the positive mood of people after the current 7th pay Commission and the recent market undertones and movement, which again are pointing upwards due to the same reasons.
“This coming season will surely see more number of transactions mainly because of the current political changes and also the variety of projects available in the market both for the investors and the actual users. In case of Navi Mumbai the plans of Airport and Trans Harbour Link getting paced up and just the talk of it has started ringing bells for investors and actual users,” says Trivedi.
Manju Yagnik, Vice Chairperson, Nahar Group says the festive season hold a great significance in India and contributes in a big way to the market. Buying a house is an emotional decision and people prefer to wait for an auspicious occasion for a new beginning.
“Mumbai especially cannot be compared with any other city in terms of the property market due to its ever increasing demand for housing. The festive season will see a brighter side in the property market as the prices have also been steady since quite some time giving buyers a good time period to plan their investments. Inspite of the rising cost of material, labour and land there has not been a rise in the pricing of property,” says Yagnik.
Developers have a point when they talk about the muhurat-led buying and today’s market reality. There is no denying that Ganesh Chaturthi has been a catalyst for property acquisition in the past. Even otherwise, a large cross-section of Indians tends to link property acquisition with auspicious dates, and hence activity levels on the property market increase visibly during the festivals.
Festivals like Navratra, Diwali, Akshay Tirtiya, Gudi Padwa and Ganesh Chaturthi traditionally have been emotionally connected to the Indians as an auspicious day for wealth acquisition and howsoever property market fluctuations may have taught them in the past, they still look this time around as the best time to buy property. Developers, on their part, go over board to make sure that the festive season does not be of just symbolic relevance.
